Oral contraceptives with drospirenone increase risk of nonfatal DVT/PE (BMJ)

Drospirenone is the new progesterone analog in heavily marketed new oral contraceptive pills (trade names Yaz, Yasmin, Angelique). Using a large insurance claims database, Jick et al identified 186 cases of DVT or PE in women aged 15-44 taking oral contraceptives and compared them to controls. Those taking drospirenone-containing OCPs had a nonfatal DVT/PE incidence of 30 per 100,000 person-years, compared to 12.5 for those taking levonorgestrel-containing agents. BMJ 2011;342:d2151. FREE FULL TEXT